Spasm (Reovin Sickfic)
by C. Sinclair
Summary: The next expedition is creeping up. Erwin can't help but notice his genius of an associate is not quite himself… What could possibly be wrong?


"Leon?"

The sound of a pen clattering against the wooden floorboards brought the steely blue gaze of the Scouting Legion Commander up from the edge of his paperwork with a furrowed brow. Beyond his mahogany desk was his younger associate - whom he'd noticed had been acting a touch off since early that morning.

No later than six thirty that morning had it been when the Compass had hauled himself from the barracks with a sluggish droop to his shoulders to Erwin's office. The process of preparing the expedition was a group effort among all of the Scouting Legion's most highly regarded veteran soldiers and well oiled minds.

Leonardo Ancel was one of many whom he'd had the pleasure of meeting a few years back - and what a pleasure it had been to find someone of his expertise and knowledge.

Erwin had always been impressed by Leon's diligence, as the pace at which the sand blonde worked, and the quality of his propositions were never short of brilliant. Throughout the morning - the younger man had chiselled away the fine details, but there had been a dramatic shift as eight hours of strenuous mental labour were carried out without rest.

It was come about then when Erwin had begun to notice the shift in his Sergeant's behaviour. When he glanced up, he would spot Leon's arm raised at an angle, brass tip of his pen frozen against the paper, staining the map with a deep blotch of pearly sable - until Erwin called over to him, advising for the young man to resume, as time was a luxury they did not have.

Leon would apologize stubbornly in a brisk mumble and proceeded to work with an increasingly melodramatic hunch of his shoulders - but it would only be for fifteen minutes before Erwin had to address him by name once again.

Erwin's gaze raised from Leon towards the clock. A minute had passed. Leon had neither responded to the gentle coo of the Commander, nor had he moved to pick up his pen. It was growing outstandingly clear to the golden blond that something was most certainly not right. The feet of his bolstered chair warbled against the floorboards as the Commander rose, the furrow of his brows growing taut.

A hand teased the edge of the dark wood of his desk before lifting away as Erwin strode towards the wall, adorned with the map, so full of pins, it may as well be an embroidery pincushion. Worried fingers found their way to gently grasp the shoulder of the Sergeant, whose celeste gaze appeared peculiarly focused the pen at his boots.

"Leon?" Firmness coated the concerned tone of the Commander. It seemed it took a moment for the younger man to register the voice - and looking rather lost, Leon looked towards Erwin with something reminiscent to a tired glare. "How is it going?"

"It's going fine." The Sergeant's slurring mumble came out surprisingly brisk.

"Have you finished?" Erwin had managed to hide his offence well behind yet another question, looking towards the wall.

"No." Once again - brief and brisk.

A lavishly thick brow of the older man rose before quickly falling. Yet again, his gaze made a quick dark towards the clock. "Hanji will need to revise what you have done before the supper rations are dealt out, Leon." He reminded the male, whose own plumaged, dark brows had creased inwards with a prominent look of annoyance. "Yet.. You've been slacking today."

"Well, I'm sorry." The sand blonde's shoulders raised with a scrunch of his nose, his gaze focusing once more on the floorboards. Words were not exchanged for a brief number of moments as Erwin took note of Leon's behaviour. His expression had grown from sullen to flat - mouth seeming to gape abnormally open to one side, seemingly unknowingly.

"Leon."

No response.

"Leon" Erwin said once more. The Sergeant's mouth did not close, but his gaze had found its way to lay its dreary glare upwards.

"What?"

"You remember there is a deadline, yes, Le-"

"Yes! I'm aware of the deadline!" Leon's bark of a response echoed within the office with astounding volume, his blaring voice cutting through Erwin's unfinished remark with ripping animosity. Celeste met steel blue with streaks of ice, radiating their cold stare up at his superior. Rather than his gaze meeting one of equal anger, it was one of concern from Erwin. "Yes… I-I… L-Le... ave... a-!"

The curious trailing off in the Sergeant's voice was due to an aggressive shiver, once quickly rattled him quite substantially on the chair he sat upon, ending with a self-interrupted wincing noise. His elbows pulled towards his stomach, fingers flexing as his hands hung in contorted positions at his chest.

A wailing, incoherent shriek of agony was ushered from Leon's mouth as he had suddenly stiffened after the brief flailing of his wrists was accompanied by other erratic motions upon the wobbling chair. His cry caused his forehead to flush a sickening shade of red, before his voice seized, replaced by stifled gags. The armless chair offered the young man no barrier of protection from the floor, and a nasty fall would have been very well possible if not for Erwin's broad arms serving as a net to catch the Compass as his weight tipped too far to one side.

In the Commander's broad arms the Sergeant has been caught, every muscle straining as he contorted wildly, striking celestine eyes rolled backwards behind fluttering eyelids.

That first jerk of his lean body was no shiver. It was a convulsion.

Leonardo was having a seizure, and this was not the first time Erwin had bore witness to the male's worrying condition. But never was it not an absolutely troubling sight, whether his good friend be a pudgy toddler or a grown man at the time of its occurrence.

Calm and cautious hands cradled the Sergeant, who was quick to begin perspiring as his failing gasps for air fluctuated in their strength - hands remaining craned upon his chest. 'Talk of work would have to wait.'

Kneeling down, it was in the centre of the room where he slowly brought Leon down, body parallel to the wood floor beneath them, while Erwin's lap acted as a temporary pillow for the male's head. Through the white pants of his uniform, he could feel the damp warmth of saliva, pooling within the younger's mouth, overflowing at the corners of his bluing lips.

"Okay… It's going to be okay." Erwin mumbled as he watched the young man's forehead become freckled with beads of cold sweat, forming beneath his mock of unkempt hair while Erwin hurriedly stripped his own tan jacket. He shook his arms from the fitted sleeves of his jacket, proceeded to fold it before ever so carefully replacing his knees with the makeshift pillow for Leon's head.

His hands eased the younger blonde onto his left shoulder, steadying his seizing body with a gentle hand upon his bicep while his eyes followed the thin second hand of the clock on its journey towards the twelve from just before the mark of one.

One minute. No change. Erwin's teeth sank into the corner of his lower lip as Leon's arms and legs continued to whir - eyes battling a losing fight to roll forwards, bubbling gasps for air doing little to help the tensed male. If Leon's convulsions were to carry on for longer than four minutes… Erwin gulped. How would he find help without leaving Leon unattended?

He prayed that things wouldn't grow to become that severe. But with his Sergeant, nothing was ever seemed to be a given. He would just have to watch Leon cycle through this and supply what help he could.

Erwin observed Leon's erratically movements of Leon's limbs. The Sergeant's hands clambered at the floor while his legs paddled and kicked furiously at the air, shoulders bunched. Two minutes… Three minutes… The Commander's throat began to grow dry - leading him to struggle breaths behind his Adam's Apple as he caressed Leon's sopping wet locks of hair, combing them away from his sticky forehead. 'Come on.. Come on, Leon.'

Four...

A heaving gasp caused Erwin to flinch. Dry heaves amounted to the expulsion of chyme and bile from Leon's mouth before he stilled, legs and arms stilling, falling to the floor with a hollow thump. Erwin was able to catch a glimpse of dilated celestine blue eyes roll forwards before eyelids shut, sighing out of relief as the steady rhythm of Leon's breaths slowly returned.

His hand trailed the length of Leon's arm soothingly as he watched the sand blonde's eyes open and close, slow and debilitated, mouth, dripping with spit and stomach bile opening to aid him in the ventilation process. "Erwin…?" The younger croaked out groggily.

"Yes, yes. It's me." Erwin answered Leon softly, taking hold of the Sergeant's delicate, perspiring hand - giving it a gentle squeeze as Leon's consciousness began to waver. "Let's get you cleaned up…" Erwin whispered as Leon's hand slipped from his own.

Supper had since came around - and Erwin's head turned to the door at the sight of brown locks of the bespectacled female poked through into his office with a creak of hinges. "Erwin?" The voice was none other than Hanji Zoe, whom Erwin greeted with a curt nod of his head.

"Good evening, Hanji." The golden blond replied - lips pursing as Hanji looked towards the corner of Erwin's room, amess with disorderly sheets of paper and journals, the articles of Leon's own den of a workspace. All was there - with the exception of the Sergeant.

"Huh…" The scientist's brow was quick to lower with a puzzled look. "Has Leon already left…?" She inquired, looking at Erwin - hands finding their way to her hips. "I need to see those drafts he made for the expedition routes." She informed Erwin of what he already knew, to which Erwin nodded patiently.

"No, Leon's still here…" Erwin said softly with a sigh, beckoning for the the female to follow him as he performed a graceful spin on the heel of his boot, striding quietly towards the private bedding chamber, connected to his office - accessible by only the evergreen door.

The brass knob turned - and ever so slowly, both of the elder officials peered into the dark bedroom. Tucked up to the chin beneath warm duvets with a bucket at the nightstand - the Compass, who had since been cleaned of his sweat, spit and bile - lay asleep on his stomach, tall boots neatly placed at the foot of the bed, a tissue balled up in his loose fist.

"He wasn't able to complete it." Erwin informed Hanji, who observed her sleeping colleague with a look of worry. "He had a seizure, roughly…" He turned his head to reference to the clock - before addressing Hanji once more. "Two hours ago. He's just exhausted..."

"Does he have epilepsy?" Hanji inquired.

"I don't believe he does." Erwin responded, hands driving into his back pockets, thick brows lowering with a troubled furrow. "But, he has had seizures before." He said, reminiscing decades back, eyes closing as a heavy sigh was ushered from his nose. "I'm unsure of what triggered it."

Hanji's lean fingers found their way to her chin - lower lip pushing itself outwards as she found herself deep in thought - deducing and sorting out possibilities. "Perhaps a combination of high blood pressure and smoking?" She proposed with the raise of a brow, cocoa gaze meeting Erwin's baffled gaze of steel blue.

"He smokes?" Erwin's tone of surprise made Hanji's expression contort, dumbfounded.

"You didn't know?"

Erwin's blue eyes met the deep blue sky beyond the rectangular window of his office, shoulders giving an embarrassed shrug as his head shook. "No." He admitted sullenly, to which Hanji chuckled lightly at and gave her Commander a pat on the arm.

"That's alright, Erwin. Nothing to get upset about." She said kindly as her hand slid away. "What matters is that you care about him, whether you know everything there is to know about him or not. And I'm sure that he's very grateful for what you do." She smiled.

"Yes… I suppose so…" And for the first time that day - Erwin's heart fluttered with a feeling of deep admiration and pride, lips pressing to form a leveled smile. He steped on into the darkness of the bedroom, easing the door open to allow for him to slide in. His weight shifted to his hands, gentle lips stamping the Sergeant's forehead with a warm, affectionate kiss, fingers carding through layers of blonde, soft hair.

He would always be there for this young man… Nothing but death could hold him back from at the very least trying…

"Sleep well, Leonardo..."


End file.
